Is Custom Web Design Dying? – The End of Professional Web Design

Is Custom Web Design Dying? – The End of Professional Web Design

There was a time when people had to build their own website, or at least hire someone to craft a good site. However, pundits are saying that the customized web design approach is going the way of the buffalo. Is this in fact true? Is web development and design a thing of the past? There is certainly a lot of evidence to point towards that. Could be that the evolution of HTML, CSS, and other things are starting to be so simple that no one needs professional grade help? Or is it that consumers have no idea what they want, until they see it in action? Emulation is starting to take over in some instances, and while that may seem unethical, designers are bending to consumers that are going to pay, and as you may know, standing your ground may not pay the bills.

The Most Important Factors of Design For Websites Today

If you look at what consumers want, and the desire of web users, in terms of important web design choices, you’ll find that a majority will want a site that works. If it works, even if it’s a minimalist design, they’ll want that over a nice looking, attractive and cutting edge digital experience. This is a complete shift from Flash-heavy web design, and splash pages that hit the web in a few years past. Function over fashion is what you should adhere to as a designer. Thinking more like a UX designer instead of a graphic designer will help benefit your client’s web experience. If a site works, if information is garnered with ease, and sales are made, then what’s the point of flashy design work? That’s the kind of questions developers are struggling with right now.

The Saturation of Themes

Don’t give up on custom HTML and CSS designs just yet. You will find that with the over saturation of themes, templates and more, you will want to edit things yourself. The theme “game” is getting a lot of web designers and developers paid to work on a variety of things moving forward. Theme designers push out so much code in a mass-marketed, conveyer belt style that you will not be able to compete with on a technical side.

Learning to edit, modify, and build a template within a CMS like WordPress, Drupal or Django. That’s where knowing HTML, PHP, Javascript, and CSS comes in handy. You may not build a site from notepad up, but you will definitely be editing code over and over again to get it just right.

The Evolution of WYSIWYG Framework

In the past, you needed to get programs like Dreamweaver to build sites. Today, you just need to set up a free account at one of the many dot-coms that are reselling simple hosting plans on the backbone of WYSIWYG editing solutions. That means that you will be able to edit, build, and even use images on a fast paced solution.

The problem here is that things are closed off, limited, and don’t have much in the term of customizations.

Is Custom Design Dead?

The answer is no. While some will decry the death of programming, design, and more, you’ll find that if you learn CSS, HTML, PHP, and figure out how to customize templates, you will always find work. People may like templates, just like purchasing cars of the same color, but customization is still something that they’ll want, and it is beneficial on many levels. It’s not enough to be tech savvy nowadays; learning code, and editing by hand will come in handy more often than not. If you aren’t ready to learn code, and don’t want to use the same-old, cookie-cutter template solution, then contact us at Design Web and we can create a fantastic site for you.